Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Tomohisa Okuno

Yuichi Sato

Hiroshi Iwata

Akihide Shibata

Seizo Kakimoto

The yield of a semiconductor device is improved which has a large-scale logic circuit or which has both a logic circuit and a memory. A basic circuit block is provided with an input/output circuit. A transmission line and a branch line connect the input/output circuits so that information can be exchanged through the input/output circuits between one basic circuit block and another basic circuit block. The memory in each basic circuit block or in each input/output circuit can be programmed from the outside to designate the destination of a signal. By thus changing the program in the memory, the transmission destination of a signal can be changed to give various functions efficiently with a limited circuit scale. Moreover, if a basic circuit block fails another basic circuit block substitutes for it to improve the yield drastically.

Semiconductor device

By using a first delay circuit that delays by a predetermined time a reference pulse signal having a constant pulse width and a second delay circuit that delays by an arbitrary time the output signal of the first delay circuit, a voltage conversion circuit generates an output pulse signal having a variable pulse period, and varies its output voltage according to the pulse period of this output pulse signal.

Voltage conversion circuit and semiconductor integrated circuit device provided with it

A voltage conversion circuit alternately controls ON/OFF of a PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor that are provided in series between high voltage power source lines, and outputs a low voltage obtained by causing a filter circuit to smooth an output voltage of each transistor. Further, the voltage conversion circuit uses the output voltage of the filter circuit as a power source of an output pulse signal generating circuit for driving the two transistors. Further, the voltage conversion circuit causes a start-up signal generating circuit to generate a start-up signal for forcing the PMOS transistor to turn ON during a predetermined period on start-up, and causes a switch control circuit to select the start-up signal instead of the pulse signal from the output pulse signal generating circuit, thereby realizing sure start-up.

Voltage conversion circuit, semiconductor integrated circuit device, and portable terminal

A voltage conversion circuit has a pulse generator that generates a pulse signal having a fixed pulse width and a variable pulse period. The output voltage of this voltage conversion circuit is determined according to the ratio of the pulse width to the pulse period of the pulse signal generated by the pulse generator. This circuit configuration makes it possible to produce as the output voltage lower voltages than ever.

Voltage conversion circuit and semiconductor integrated circuit device provided therewith

A two-dimensional array transposition circuit having a small circuit scale and accordingly having a small power consumption includes a memory cell array capable of storing a two-dimensional array and an address translation circuit receiving an address signal and generating a row address signal and a column address signal for specifying a memory cell of the memory cell array via a row decoder and a column decoder. The address translation circuit generates, when one two-dimensional array is written into the memory cell array, a row address signal and a column address signal successively such that an order of writing is according to one of an order giving priority to a row direction and selecting a memory cell and an order giving priority to a column direction and selecting a memory cell and generates, when the two-dimensional array is read from the memory cell array, a row address signal and a column address signal successively such that an order of reading is according to the other order.

Growing community of inventors

Tenri, Japan

Tomohisa Okuno